By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News
s space shuttle Atlantis's wheels touched down in Florida on Thursday, the shuttles' epoch of defining manned spaceflight came to a close. What comes next for the US space agency is a new way of running things - but not everyone is happy about it.
For now, American astronauts and their long-time partners in Canada, Europe and Japan will depend on Russian Soyuz vehicles to get to orbit and the job of developing the shuttles' successors will be carried out in the private sector.
Much of the news coverage of the end of this era has looked wistfully back on the shuttles' accomplishments, principal among them the development of the International Space Station.
As for what's next, Nasa administrator Charles Bolden is just one of many at the agency insisting that the "future of human spaceflight is bright".
However, those rosy views of both past and future are not shared by everyone.
One concern is the sweeping job cuts at the agency. But former Nasa administrator Mike Griffin and space policy expert John Logsdon say that Nasa's grip on leadership in space has this week been lost - possibly forever.
"When you push aside all the puffery and high-flying political announcements, with the landing of Atlantis, the human spaceflight programme of the US will come to an end for the indefinite future," Professor Griffin told BBC News.
Much of the news coverage of the end of this era has looked wistfully back on the shuttles' accomplishments, principal among them the development of the International Space Station.
As for what's next, Nasa administrator Charles Bolden is just one of many at the agency insisting that the "future of human spaceflight is bright".
However, those rosy views of both past and future are not shared by everyone.
One concern is the sweeping job cuts at the agency. But former Nasa administrator Mike Griffin and space policy expert John Logsdon say that Nasa's grip on leadership in space has this week been lost - possibly forever.
"When you push aside all the puffery and high-flying political announcements, with the landing of Atlantis, the human spaceflight programme of the US will come to an end for the indefinite future," Professor Griffin told BBC News.
In the Apollo days there were TWO Nasa organizations in place. The real one that put a monkey into high orbit three weeks before Apollo 11. It promptly died from the Van Allen radiation. That is why not man has been more than 320 miles about Earth, ever.
ReplyDeleteThen the fake NASA that claimed to send men to the moon in a totally unprotected tin can using 33 degree Masons as actors. Sworn until death to keep the lie.
Goes to show that ridiculous scams can still remain after 40+ years. Just like the 9/11 scam is still believed 10 years later. Very sad.
http://www.erichufschmid.net/ApolloMoonHoax.pdf
nasa was the greatest organzation the world has ever known was cheap to run and is the end of a country look americans!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteyou are know a third world country
china and other nations rule space
your jobs are gone and next your banks
next your food
the invasion
america is the eagle with no feathers ruled by corruption an end of an empire
god help us because satan has done his job well
now sheep serve your new masters well because we will be slaves next
US = fail, plain and simple. We have too many feminized useless programs to attend to.
ReplyDeleteThe shuttle program was a costly and time wasting fiasco (as well as the international space station). Our hard earned tax dollars were plundered on ill-engineered contraptions like those. We could have already sent robotic missions to explore Pluto, Venus and other wonders of the solar system. Instead, an obscene amount of time, energy and capital were wasted on horrors (shuttle & space station) as those.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. A waste of money. There was never a landing on the moon. Impossible. We don't even have the technology to go there now, let alone back in the 60s. Like the radiation would of killed the men. Always wondered how they got that ship, that supposely landed on the moon, to rocket off the moon. Supposely rocket boosters lifted it off the moon to meet up with the space module. The whole scenario is unbeliveable. If we were able to go to the moon, you could be sure that they would have a space station up there. If we really knew what they do up there in the space station orbitting the earth, most people would probably be shocked.
ReplyDeleteNot all sure on the kooky theories but it was and is a true waste of money that had most of it's inventions stolen by companies...Basically a black hole to stick money into and use to send spy satellites...Which could have been done at about half the price by public companies.
ReplyDeleteYes, truth is kooky.
ReplyDeleteNASA was the spawn of the NAZIs. After WWII we brought over all the top NAZI rocket scientists and their handlers. The only thing missing on the NASA rockets were the Swastika.
Funny. The 'man moon landings' were only allowed to be filmed by the networks by having their cameras pointed at TV screens, no direct feeds LOL. Could you imagine? That way if something went wrong they could cut the signal easier without it being too suspicious.
One huge flub was when they telecast the Apollo 11 supposed landing and there was clearly a bottle of Coke sitting on the moon waiting HAHAHA. Thousands of people saw it. When they cut back to the scene the bottle had been removed.
There were dozens of flubs and mistakes just like in the 9/11 scam but that doesn't really matter. Delusion in itself means that facts don't matter.